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Last week, on October 19, I drove up from the Montgomery County, Maryland to attend the R.J. Leonard Foundation’s fourth annual Heart for Change fundraising event in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. I have been working as a writer and editor for the RJLF for a couple months, but this was my first time seeing any of the Foundation’s Fellows, staff, or supporters in person. The experience was well worth the four-hour drive.

Before attending Heart for Change, I of course already knew that the RJLF is dedicated to helping young people living in very difficult circumstances achieve their dreams. I was already proud to play a part in the work.

The stories I heard at Heart for Change, however, drove home just how impactful the Foundation has been in the lives of its Fellows.

These young people already had drive, passion, and intelligence before they ever came into contact with the RJLF. What the Foundation has done, however, is given Fellows the tools to harness those qualities and reach their full potential.

I was especially moved by a point that Fellows returned to again and again: that their time with the RJLF has inspired them to give back in turn, thus creating a positive cycle of social change.

The great Robert Kennedy once said that each time a person “stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice,” they send forth “a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance.”

That is precisely what the RJLF is doing.

By Peter Sicher, Content Development Associate for the R.J. Leonard Foundation